Memories
by Vicky4
Summary: When Jesse finds Susan dead on the beach, none of his friends believe him. It is up to Jesse to investigate, which leads to his kidnap.


Title: Memories  
  
Author: Vicky and Laura  
  
Summary: When Jesse finds Susan dead on the beach, none of his friends believe him. It is up to Jesse to investigate, which leads to his kidnap. PG  
  
Disclaimer: None of the Characters belong to us, but we are just borrowing them from CBS. We do not want to make any money out of them.  
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
  
It was a Monday morning and as usual, Dr. Mark Sloan, the chief of internal medicine at Community General Hospital, and Dr. Amanda Bentley, a pathologist at the same hospital, were working hard. Mark was quite tall with whitish hair and a white moustache. He was an excellent doctor and also had a very good "bedside manner". As a result of this, a lot of his friends came to him whenever they had any problems and he was always happy to help. However, he was quite eccentric with well-known strange habits such as roller-skating round the hospital to save himself time. He had several hobbies including magic and most importantly, crime. His son was a police detective in a long line of family detectives. Despite the fact that Mark was the "black sheep" of the family and the only one not to become a police officer, that did not mean he never got involved in detective work. He was a medical consultant to the police department and liked helping his son with his work, as well as helping out any friends when they were involved with crime. In some ways, he was a better detective even than his son.  
  
Amanda Bentley, on the other hand, was quite young and pretty with quite dark skin and black hair. She was quite rich and had two children, CJ (short for Colin Jesse) and a foster son Dion. She was also a good detective. As a pathologist, she often did autopsies for the police department and liked to help Mark whenever he did any investigating.  
  
Mark and Amanda had been talking for a short while when the subject of their friend and colleague Dr. Jesse Travis, came up.  
  
"Where is he, anyway?" Amanda asked,  
  
"Have a guess." Mark replied, so Amanda guessed,  
  
"The beach?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
Jesse was a cardiologist as well as an emergency room doctor. He was slightly younger than Mark and Amanda, was extremely good looking and had blonde hair and blue eyes. Jesse also liked helping Mark or Steve with solving crime and was often the most enthusiastic about it as he always did things wholeheartedly. Whenever they couldn't find him, the first place Mark and Amanda always looked was the beach. One of Jesse's favourite hobbies was surfing and consequently he spent a long time at the local beach. That didn't mean he ever missed work as he was a very hard working doctor, it just meant that he was always easy to find. Suddenly they heard a shout,  
  
"Mark.......Amanda!" Jesse shouted breathlessly as he ran along the corridor knocking various objects (and people) flying as he went.  
  
"Jesse!" Amanda shouted as he sent someone else flying. She didn't mean to lecture him, but often found herself moaning at him or telling him what to do. It had something to do with the fact that she was older and had also been working at the hospital longer than him. When they had first met each other a few years ago, Jesse had been a young and slightly naïve intern. Although he was older and more sensible now, she still seemed to find herself acting as his mum, in the same way as Mark found himself acting as a father figure to everyone. It was one part of their relationship that she just could not change. After all Jesse didn't usually mind and it never seemed to cause any problems.  
  
"Sorry," Jesse rapidly apologised, "but she's dead, I found her at the beach."  
  
"Jesse, you're not making any sense. Calm down and speak slowly," Mark commanded.  
  
"I found her Mark, she's dead." he replied more slowly.  
  
"Who's she?" Amanda asked.  
  
"Susan!"  
  
"Susan?" Mark and Amanda asked in unison.  
  
"Come and see." he replied and before Mark and Amanda realised what was happening they were hustled into the back of Jesse's car and on their way to the beach. Both Mark and Amanda were highly sceptical of finding Susan Hilliard, Jesse's ex-fiancée, lying dead anywhere. Susan was a nurse at community general and for a long time she and Jesse had been in love. However, a while after they had become engaged, Susan had left Jesse for another man. They both knew that Jesse had never fully recovered after Susan had broken up with him and could have quite easily mistaken someone else for her. Despite this, they both knew Jesse too well to say anything until they could prove to Jesse that he had been wrong, so the three of them sat in silence for the rest of the journey, Jesse in a state of confused panic and Mark and Amanda pondering the best way to tell Jesse he had been wrong. Of course, there was always a chance that Susan was dead, but Mark and Amanda didn't think that was very likely.  
  
As soon as they arrived at the beach Jesse rushed them along to a spot a bit further up the beach than the beach house. The beach house was Mark and his son Steve's house. Mark and Steve had an excellent relationship with each other and even though Steve was at least forty years old, they still lived together. He was very caring and protective of his father, so even though he had moved out a few times he had always come back. Steve was quite tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was astonishingly good looking but never seemed to have much success in his love life as all his girlfriends either died or turned out to be the murderer in a case he was working on. Steve was a very good detective in the police force, although a lot of his success was to do with his dad. Mark had the top floor of the beach house and Steve had the ground floor so they still had plenty of privacy.  
  
Amanda and Jesse also spent a lot of time there, as it was a convenient meeting place for the four of them, who were all good friends. It was also perfect for when Jesse went surfing.  
  
"Where is she then?" Mark enquired,  
  
"I don't know, she was here a minute ago." Jesse replied.  
  
"Jesse, this may seem like a strange question but why didn't you 'phone the police?" Amanda asked. Jesse ignored that question and carried on looking confused.  
  
"Are you sure she was here? It wasn't somewhere or someone else?" Mark asked gently,  
  
"I saw her, Mark, she was here." Jesse insisted, looking around wildly.  
  
"Come on Jesse, let's go and get a drink." Mark replied. He felt sorry for Jesse but knew that trying to convince himself Susan was dead wouldn't help at all. The best thing they could do was be supportive of Jesse and leave him to help himself. Slowly Jesse turned round and followed Mark and Amanda up to the beach house.......  
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Later that evening Jesse returned to the beach. It was calm and peaceful outside but his feelings on the inside were the complete opposite. What had happened to Susan? Where was she now? Had he really seen her body or had he just imagined it like everyone thought? So many questions and no answers. Suddenly he noticed a small glint in the sand out of the corner of his eye. He bent down and looked at it more closely. It was a ring. He picked it up and examined it. It was the same engagement ring he had given to Susan! So he had seen her, but where was she now?  
  
He was still standing there in a puzzled silence when he heard a movement over in one corner. Turning round quietly he noticed someone dressed in a dark suit. He was tall, with dark hair and was carrying a briefcase. After looking more closely he realised it was actually Chris Sittend, the man Susan had left him for. Although just seeing him brought back painful memories for Jesse, he decided that it might be worth following him. Quietly Jesse turned around and watched for a while before following Chris further along the beach. After about five minutes he walked round a corner and discovered that Chris had disappeared. It took him several minutes to realise that he had left the beach and headed inland slightly. After exploring the area, Jesse found a dilapidated old house. The whole house was in a bad state, with all the windows smashed, graffiti everywhere and plants crawling all over the place. The roof had also caved in on one side and one of the walls had completely collapsed.  
  
He crept up to it and peered through an opening that used to be a window. As he peered in, he saw what appeared to be a group of people, with Chris among them, who were discussing something quietly. Suddenly, their voices became louder, more agitated and he saw one of them snatch the briefcase from Chris. He heard several snatches of conversation but the only words he really heard properly were "Res DeLore" which was presumably a name. Suddenly it seemed as if someone was starting to leave so Jesse hurriedly turned around and headed back towards the beach, making a loud noise in the process and dropping Susan's engagement ring. Just as he reached the beach someone came out of the house, having been disturbed by the noise. After looking around for a few minutes, he spotted the ring that Jesse had left behind and stooped down to pick it up. He then turned around and went back inside, reporting the find to his companions.  
  
Something about what he had seen made Jesse want to find out more about this Res DeLore person, so he headed down to his local library where he spent some time searching for any mentions of someone by that name. He finally found a mention in one of the old newspapers, Res DeLore had been involved with a drugs scandal!! Jesse hadn't got the faintest idea why Chris Sittend, who was a well-known chiropractor, and his friends had been discussing Res, but somehow, he knew there was a connection with drugs. Maybe one of those people had even been Res DeLore. He would have looked further but after looking at his watch, Jesse realised he was already late for his shift at the hospital.  
  
Later that evening he turned up at the hospital, working in the ER as usual. However, unlike his normal self, he was somewhat distracted and he did not pay much attention to what he was doing. Maybe Lt. Steve Sloan, Mark's son, would listen to what he had to say. Jesse decided he would phone him and tell him about Res DeLore and drugs. Surely he would listen to that. However, as soon as Jesse mentioned Susan, Steve said,  
  
"Jesse, I'm sure if Susan was dead someone else would have seen her as well. You're not the only one who walks on the beach."  
  
"But Steve.....,"  
  
"Look, I'll find out if anyone has reported someone suspicious hanging about on the beach or if there have been any problems connected with Susan, but Jesse,"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You're only making things harder on yourself this way."  
  
"Well, thanks anyway." Jesse replied, there didn't seem any point telling him about the drugs now. He sighed and hung up as soon as Steve said goodbye.  
  
Half way through his shift he spotted some of Susan's old friends and decided he would ask them if they had seen Susan recently. He wandered over to them and started a conversation. There was Terri Matthews, a tall, dark haired woman wearing sunglasses even though they were indoors, Vanessa Campers who was quite a bit shorter than Terri and had slightly lighter hair. Finally there was Rachel Simpson, who was perhaps the most striking of all of them. She was about average height, with strawberry-blonde hair and bright green eyes. Jesse didn't know any of them very well but he knew certain things about them from stories Susan had told him. He had also met them enough times to know them by name. Terri was the most outspoken one in the group and Rachel was the quietest. They were all quite friendly towards him, until he started telling them what he had found out about Susan's death and the connection with drugs, her engagement ring and finally that Chris had been involved. As soon as he mentioned Chris, they all gave him disgusted looks and Rachel got up and left. Susan's closest friend of the group, Terri, spoke,  
  
"Get over her Jesse, stop making up things that aren't true. She left you and you can't take it so you're making up stories about her. We don't believe you, Susan's alive, I saw her a couple of days ago when she took a few days off to spend time with Chris. She likes him and you're trying to ruin it for her. Don't bother."  
  
"I did see her dead, I've even got her engagement ring to prove it." Jesse insisted and went to show her the ring, but could not find it. At this point, unnoticed by Jesse and Terri, Chris Sittend and some of his friends walked past them and overheard half of their conversation before moving on to the next room. Finally Jesse gave up looking for the ring and made a puzzled expression on his face.  
  
"It's not there is it?" replied Terri, "Because you never had it. Why don't you just leave her alone?"  
  
"But she was there!" Jesse protested,  
  
"Get over it Jesse, she's gone and you can't do anything about it, just get over her." answered Terri whilst forcing Jesse out of the door.  
  
Jesse didn't know what to think, no one believed him, not Susan's friends, not even his closest friends, Amanda, Mark and Steve believed him, but he had seen her he knew he had, and he would find out what had happened to her, he felt he owed her that much. He vowed to himself that he would find her killers, even if it meant getting involved with a dangerous drugs ring. Suddenly Jesse's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice,  
  
"You okay Jesse?" came the gentle voice belonging to Mark Sloan, who he had previously told about Susan's body. Although Mark didn't believe him, Jesse couldn't really blame him. After all, he did tend to get over excited and imagine things sometimes but this time he knew he hadn't imagined it. Besides, Mark was a great friend and had often been there for Jesse in the past. Still, there wasn't really any point telling him about Chris Sittend and Res DeLore. In the end Jesse decided to find more proof before he tried to mention it to Mark again so instead he just said,  
  
"Yeah, I think so."  
  
"You just seem distracted, that's all. Still thinking about Susan?" Mark asked.  
  
"Yeah." said Jesse quietly. Susan, that name upset him, he remembered Terri's words, from before, mainly  
  
'Get over her'. They stung him inside as he remembered them, as did his friend's concern remind him of her, but Mark didn't believe him, no one did. Just then Mark's pager went off.  
  
"Look Jesse I've got to go but if you need me, then call me."  
  
"Okay." Jesse replied and Mark left him. Jesse wandered around the ER for a while and was eventually satisfied that he was not needed so he decided to leave his shift early, go home and try to figure out what to do next.  
  
  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Despite Jesse's assurances that he was fine, Mark was still worried about him and an hour later he went to Terri, Vanessa and Rachel, who were Susan's closest friends, as there was a possibility Jesse might have gone to see them. However, after a short conversation with them Mark soon discovered that Jesse had left the hospital a short while before. This somewhat surprised Mark as Jesse was an extremely skilled and dedicated doctor, who hardly ever left the hospital even a few minutes before the end of his shift. Despite the fact that there was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation, Mark could not help feeling worried and decided to telephone his son Steve, who worked in the homicide department of the police force and could check up on Susan Hilliard, just in case Jesse was right and something had happened to her. He also asked Dr. Amanda Bentley to let him know if anything happened and finally he left the hospital and returned home, satisfied that he had done all he could to help Jesse.  
  
Early the next morning Mark was rudely awakened to the sound of his telephone ringing.  
  
"Hello," he managed to mumble through his yawns,  
  
"Hi Mark, it's Amanda." said the voice at the other end of the phone.  
  
"Oh hi Amanda," he said more sensibly, as he had by now managed to wake himself up properly.  
  
"I'm afraid Jesse hasn't turned up to his shift yet." she continued,  
  
"What do you mean?" Mark asked,  
  
"Well, he was due to go on duty about half an hour ago. Normally it wouldn't matter, but you know Jesse, he's never late and I know he was acting strangely before."  
  
"Okay, thanks for letting me know, I'm sure he's just overslept." Mark replied,  
  
"Well, I'll see you later then Mark, sorry to have disturbed you."  
  
"Yeah, see you later." Mark replied and Amanda hung up. Even though Mark had assured Amanda that nothing had happened to Jesse, he didn't really believe it himself so he hurriedly got dressed and after getting in his car, he headed for Jesse's apartment.  
  
Meanwhile at the hospital, Amanda didn't believe Mark's assurances either and the minute she hung up the phone, she headed straight for the beach house. After a journey that was fraught with irritation for Amanda and seemed twice as long as usual, she arrived at the beach house. At the same time Steve also pulled up into the driveway.  
  
"Oh hi Amanda, what are you doing here?" Steve immediately asked.  
  
"Looking for Mark." she replied.  
  
"I am too, I'm afraid Jesse may have been right, Susan was reported missing last Thursday." At this Amanda looked really worried,  
  
"Steve, Jesse didn't turn up for his shift this morning...." They looked at each other,  
  
"I think we both know where my dad's gone." Steve said.  
  
"Yeah and it's the same place we're about to go." Amanda replied and they turned around, jumped into Steve's car and sped over to Jesse's apartment.  
  
As soon as they pulled up in front of Jesse's apartment they both jumped out of Steve's car and sped up the stairs which led up to Jesse's front door. Steve was a lot faster than Amanda and when he ran into Mark and almost knocked him over about half way up the stairs, Amanda was lagging slightly behind. She came rushing up behind them and through several hurried gasps she spoke,  
  
"What happened? Did you find Jesse?" Mark shook his head.  
  
"I'm afraid I didn't find Jesse. I've been looking around for a while now and what's more, his bed wasn't slept in last night either." Both Steve and Amanda looked horrified and it was a while before they could tell Mark about Susan being missing. Mark became even more worried and they slowly headed down the stairs back outside. After a long silence Amanda managed to suggest they look for Jesse's car. They walked down the road and around the corner.... there was Jesse's car standing abandoned with a clamp under the wheels and the front windscreen smashed. If Jesse wasn't in his apartment then he had to be somewhere else and he couldn't get anywhere without his car. There was no way they could convince themselves he was okay now, Jesse had been kidnapped!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Chapter 4  
  
For a while they just stood there in stunned silence. Of course, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. There had been many times they had been hurt, put in danger or kidnapped during various murder investigations they had helped Steve with, but this had been completely unexpected.  
  
"We should have listened to him," Mark said presently. This wasn't the only time Jesse had been right when they hadn't believed him. There was one particular time when he had insisted that someone who had been admitted to the hospital was an impostor and the real person was lying dead somewhere. They had put this confusion down to Jesse being on his feet for over 50 hours without sleeping but in the end he had been proved right. Why hadn't they believed him this time?  
  
"I suppose we ought to phone the police." Amanda said with a glance at Steve. He nodded, still wondering why he hadn't bothered checking about Susan after Jesse had phoned him. He should have done what he had said he would, one small effort that would have stopped this happening. He sighed, regrets wouldn't do them much good now.  
  
"Why don't we check the car first, there may have been some mistake.....," he trailed off. None of them believed there really was a mistake but at least it gave them something to do. However, they quickly gave up any idea of it being so simple as when they opened the boot of Jesse's car they found Susan's dead body, along with her engagement ring. Finally Amanda spoke.  
  
"What on earth is that doing there?" she shouted. None of them could understand what was going on. First Jesse disappearing then Susan's body turning up in his car boot! It seemed completely unreal, like a terrible nightmare.  
  
"I don't know," Mark replied, "but maybe we shouldn't phone the police just yet and keep it under wraps instead. I mean this could look very bad for Jesse...." Steve and Amanda agreed. Even if they couldn't take back the mistake of not believing Jesse, they could at least try and make up for it and help Jesse now. Otherwise.......well, Jesse could not just be in danger from Susan's killers but also wanted by the police for murder. So they took Susan's body back to the hospital where Amanda performed the autopsy. Meanwhile Steve headed back to the police station where he started looking for as much information as he could find on Susan and all those connected with her.  
  
Mark decided that if anyone knew anything about Susan, Terri, Vanessa and Rachel would, so he searched the hospital until he found both Terri and Vanessa in the nurses' lounge, taking a break. He walked up to them.  
  
"Hello." he said casually.  
  
"Oh hi Dr. Sloan," Terri replied, "anything the matter?"  
  
"Well I actually wanted to speak to you about Dr. Travis." Mark replied.  
  
"Dr. Travis? Oh you mean Jesse." Vanessa said.  
  
"Yes. You see Jesse didn't turn up today and he seemed to have a preoccupation with Susan or something. You said he was talking to you yesterday."  
  
"Oh yeah. He seemed to think Susan was dead, he even said he had her engagement ring or something." Vanessa replied.  
  
"And did he?" Mark asked.  
  
"Oh no, he said he couldn't find it but I think he probably didn't have it in the first place." she replied.  
  
"Oh I see. Have you seen Susan recently? If Jesse came to you to ask about Susan he may have gone to see her as well."  
  
"She's not dead if that's what you were thinking. I saw her a little while ago, she said she was going to take some time off and spend some time with Chris."  
  
"Chris?" Mark asked.  
  
"Chris Sittend. Her boyfriend."  
  
"Oh yeah, Chris. Look I've got to go but thanks for helping me."  
  
"Anytime." Vanessa replied and Mark was just about to leave when Terri suddenly spoke,  
  
"I could help you find Jesse you know," she said.  
  
"Really? That would be great. I mean you could stay here and listen out if you hear anyone talking about him or anything," Mark replied.  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Well I'll talk to you later then."  
  
"Okay, bye." Terri replied.  
  
"Goodbye." Mark echoed.  
  
Although nothing Terri and Vanessa had said was directly useful, they did get Mark thinking. If Jesse was right about Susan being dead then he must have been right when he told them about having Susan's engagement ring. The only question was, when did he lose it? If his captors had taken it then they must have put it back with Susan's body, therefore they must have been close enough to Susan to know it was hers. Who was close to Susan? Well, there was Chris. Mark didn't remember him all that well but he was sure if he asked Steve they could find out more about him. After thinking it through, he returned to his office and was just about to phone Steve when Amanda burst in.  
  
"Mark, Susan didn't die of drowning or suffocation like we thought, she died of a drug overdose, more specifically, heroin." she exclaimed, handing Mark her preliminary autopsy report. Mark glanced over it then looked up.  
  
"Heroin? Are you sure?" he asked.  
  
"Well that's what the test results show."  
  
"Mmmm... Was she a long time user?"  
  
"No, I can't find any signs of long term abuse."  
  
"Then it must have been murder!"  
  
"I know." Mark frowned,  
  
"Listen, Amanda. I just spoke to Susan's friends Terri and Vanessa, apparently she told them she was taking a few days off to be with Chris Sittend."  
  
"Did she?" Amanda asked.  
  
"I don't know, I'm going to ask Steve to check up on him but I think maybe they might be helpful as well."  
  
"Maybe you should talk to them again." Amanda suggested.  
  
"I don't think so. Terri offered to help, I told her to listen out in the hospital and let me know if she hears anything. I haven't told her Susan is dead yet," he replied.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Look, I think you might be able to find out more from them if you pretend to be a nurse and get to know them more. They might open up more to a friend."  
  
"I think I might just do that. What are you going to do?"  
  
"I'm just going to finish my rounds then go back to Jesse's apartment and look around a bit more."  
  
"Okay, see you later."  
  
"Yeah, bye," and with that, Amanda turned around and left the room, leaving Mark to phone Steve.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Before his father had phoned, Steve had been spending a very unproductive time searching the records for information on Susan. However, once he had a better idea of what he was looking for, he quickly discovered that Chris Sittend was also missing. Was it a coincidence? He didn't think so. If Susan had been spending some time with him then he had either killed her and disappeared to escape any danger of arrest, been murdered himself or was being held captive. Personally Steve suspected he was Susan's killer and was possibly holding Jesse captive at the moment. After another half- hour of searching he also discovered Chris was somehow involved in a drugs ring. If it was heroin then there was an even bigger chance he had killed Susan. Steve glanced at the records again. Chris was a well-known chiropractor. It wouldn't take long to find some records of his practice and look up his current address.  
  
Mark returned to Jesse's apartment quite quickly. It was quite small with strangely decorated walls. Jesse insisted they were only there because he didn't have enough time to put more wallpaper up but Mark was sure Jesse liked the wallpaper a lot. He laughed at the memory of discussing it with Jesse. Although Mark had spent a reasonable amount of time checking over Jesse's apartment before, he hadn't really made a thorough search and there were quite a few places left to look. After checking all over his apartment, he found a short message scrawled on a piece of paper. It was obviously written in a hurry but it was very hard to read and said something like, "Pea DeIape, apuya, bseR la bedch, bausc ncsrbg." at least, that's what it looked like but Mark knew it probably didn't say anything like that and probably made perfect sense. However, the only part Mark could read was something like "beach" so he pocketed the note, left Jesse's apartment and headed back to the beach, as after all, that's where Jesse had found Susan in the first place.  
  
As soon as she left Mark's office, Amanda tidied up her pathology lab, then dressed in a nurses' uniform which she wore to the nurses' lounge where she met Terri and Vanessa. She casually walked over to them and quickly started a conversation. After a while they had all become friends but as Terri and Vanessa both had to leave, Amanda started talking to some other nurses, who told her about some rumours connecting Susan and drugs. This surprised Amanda and as soon as she left the nurses lounge, she rang up Mark and left a message on his answer machine at the beach house, telling him about the connection. Then she went back to find Terri and Vanessa and learn as much as she could about Susan and Chris.  
  
Quarter of an hour after Steve thought of checking the records, he was on his way to Chris' current address, which was about a five-minute drive from the police station. He soon arrived at Chris' house, which was in a nice neighbourhood with a well kept garden and pleasant exterior. However, the door wasn't locked and inside was a big mess. There was also a noise coming from the other side of the house, as if someone was looking for something. Quietly, Steve walked towards the noise but just before he reached the source of the sound, he knocked over a vase and there was a loud "smash". As soon as he realised what he had done, he ran into the other room and pulled his gun out, just as a tall, dark man ran out of the back door. Without thinking twice and stopping only to replace his gun in his holster, Steve followed him out of the back door, through the back gate and into an alley. Every time Steve managed to get close, the man he was chasing seemed to find another way and put obstacles in Steve's path, forcing him to slow down. After running along various different alleys and running up and down steps, Steve found himself beginning to tire out but he carried on regardless. The man he was chasing also seemed to be wearing out and when they reached a large shopping mall, he took the lift down to the floor below, instead of the stairs, giving Steve a chance to run down the stairs and corner him at the bottom. However, the minute the lift reached the ground, it turned around and went back up again. Although Steve ran back up the stairs as quickly as he could, this still gave the other man an advantage and they were soon running around the busy shopping centre, with people running out of the way just as quickly. Eventually, Steve seemed to have him cornered against the barrier, which stopped people from falling down to the floor below. However, instead of being caught, the man decided to jump over the barrier, down to the floor below. He might have been all right if it wasn't for the fact that he landed in a small charity lake with a fountain and a statue in it. By the time Steve reached him, he had been hauled out of the water by two big security guards. Steve showed them his police badge and after a short explanation, arrested the man and had them both driven back to his base at the police station. After an hour of profitless interrogation, Steve had only managed to find out his name, which was Daniel Spartan. It took several bribes and promises to finally get him to tell Steve he was a PI, knew nothing about Susan and was hired to investigate Chris Sittend, by someone who was anonymous even to him. Steve sighed, had it really been worth going to all that trouble? He might as well not have bothered and he still hadn't searched Chris' house!!  
  
Chapter 6  
  
After leaving the hospital several hours ago, Jesse had reached his apartment, scribbled a quick note then turned around and left to go back to the beach. However, before he reached his car he was ambushed by two strong men, shoved into a van and tied up. Helplessly, he was taken back to the house he had discovered earlier when he had followed Chris there. When they arrived, he was dumped in a small, bare room with only one door and a small window, which was too high up to see through. Jesse was left with nothing to do but wonder where he had gone wrong. Why had he let Susan leave him? What had he done to make Susan go? The problems didn't just end then, either. When he had found her body, why hadn't he phoned the police? When Amanda had asked him that question he had ignored it, but he couldn't ignore it now. If he had phoned the police, then maybe he would be safe now, not left in some tiny room with nothing to do but think.  
  
His thoughts wandered for some time in a similar fashion, around and around in circles, asking the same questions over and over again. Just when he thought he could cope no more, he noticed someone peer their head round the door then creep in. He blinked, it was Chris Sittend!  
  
"Hello," Chris said awkwardly. He removed Jesse's gag and spoke again, in the same awkward manner,  
  
"There's no need to be scared of me. I'm not really involved in drugs trafficking. Well I am, but I'm only trying to find out about them, I don't actually help them in anyway," he paused, possibly waiting for Jesse to reply, but Jesse just stared at him in disbelief, so Chris continued,  
  
"Susan had been with these people for a long time. I don't know why, she wasn't really that type of person," he paused, then even more awkwardly he again spoke,  
  
"She still loved you, even at the end. She never stopped loving you." There was a silence, Jesse trying to take in what had been said, Chris wishing himself anywhere but there. Suddenly they were interrupted by a noise. Chris shoved Jesse's gag back on and ran to hide in a corner. One of the men who had taken Jesse here strode in. He looked around briefly then asked Jesse a question,  
  
"You seen Chris Sittend?" Jesse shook his head and the guy looked around again, then turned around and left, slamming the door behind him with a loud and final sounding "BANG"!  
  
Chapter 7  
  
This time, it took longer to find any of Susan's friends. Terri seemed to have disappeared completely but after a long search Amanda eventually found Vanessa and Rachel. Vanessa introduced her to Rachel as Patricia McCullen, the name she had used earlier. Amanda had also told them she was new at her job and was curious to learn more about the people who worked there. After listening to various stories about several nurses who seemed to lead exceedingly boring lives, Rachel mentioned Susan and Amanda started to pay attention again.  
  
"I heard somewhere she was involved in a drugs scandal or something, does that happen often in this hospital?" Amanda asked innocently, hoping the question wasn't so obvious that it made Rachel and Vanessa suspicious, but obvious enough for her to find out something useful. Thankfully, Vanessa seemed to understand,  
  
"D'you mean was she involved in stealing drugs?" Vanessa asked. Amanda nodded so she continued, "No, I don't think so, I mean it's possible but that wasn't the real story behind the rumour. You see, some time ago Susan's sister, Tina, started abusing drugs and became addicted. Susan didn't seem too bothered and didn't talk about it much. Anyway, this carried on for a while until quite recently Tina was taken suddenly ill and by the time she reached a hospital, she was in a coma. Susan had her brought here and suddenly seemed very worried and quiet. In fact, she almost had a breakdown. Terri was very supportive and kept checking up on Tina for her. I don't know why, Susan didn't always appreciate it and Terri didn't know Tina or anything. Basically, Tina died and Susan was upset for a while, then she seemed to forget about it. Some people were saying she was the one who supplied her sister with the drugs but I'm not so sure she did. Anyway, it's all over now, I don't know why everyone's bringing it up again, it all happened quite a long time ago. If you ask me all that matters is that Susan's happy again." Although Amanda was interested in this story, she almost wished she hadn't asked. Hearing Vanessa say that Susan was happy filled Amanda with an inexplicable sadness, she wished she could tell Vanessa and Rachel that Susan was dead, but at the same time she was glad she didn't have to. At that point Terri walked past, then stopped, turned around and stared at Amanda,  
  
"Weren't you a friend of Dr. Travis and Dr. Sloan?" she asked. Amanda did her best to look confused,  
  
"Dr. Travis? Dr. Sloan? I don't think I've met them. I only started here last week." she explained. Terri carried on looking at her suspiciously, then turned around and left. Vanessa and Rachel looked at Terri curiously, then at Amanda who just shrugged. Rachel then made an excuse and left Vanessa and Amanda to follow Terri.  
  
A while later, Mark was on his way towards the beach. He soon arrived and parked his car in his driveway, walked around the house, then started walking up the beach towards the spot where Jesse had found Susan. It wasn't a very long walk, but it seemed to Mark like an eternity, for some reason it seemed doubly urgent at the moment. He hurried on until he finally arrived at what looked like the same spot. There weren't any outside signs of Susan's body but he did hear a faint sound coming from somewhere slightly further up the beach and a bit further inland. He walked towards the sound, which seemed to become more and more like a human voice. He rounded a bush then found, to his horror, Amanda lying on a pile of rocks, moaning softly, in a pool of blood. He rushed over to her,  
  
"Amanda, what happened?" he asked. She moaned a few more inarticulate sounds and Mark spoke again,  
  
"Listen, I've got to get you to hospital, I'm going to run up to the beach house, then ring the paramedics, I'll be back soon, I promise." he took off his jacket, rolled it up and made a pillow, then turned around and ran back in the direction he came. It seemed to take even longer than before. What if he didn't make it in time? What if someone came back for her like they had with Susan's body? All sorts of gruesome possibilities ran through his mind for both Amanda and Jesse. By the time he reached the beach house he felt worse than if one of his nightmares had come true. He phoned the paramedics and stood around waiting for an even longer eternity. Then they finally arrived and he got in as they drove back to Amanda. He sighed with relief, she was still there and still breathing. She was quickly carried into the ambulance and within quarter of an hour, she was safely lying in a hospital bed. Only then did Mark stop holding his breath. He also phoned Steve and finally met him in Amanda's room an hour later, trying to assess the situation and do something to help Jesse.  
  
Mark was the first to speak,  
  
"How are you feeling Amanda?" he asked.  
  
"I've felt better." she replied.  
  
"Well considering how hard you were hit over the back of the head, you're very lucky."  
  
"I know."  
  
"Are you sure you don't remember anything?"  
  
"Sorry, one minute I was in the hospital, then I was knocked unconscious and don't remember anything until I saw you." After a while the conversation turned to what they had found out. Mark found himself wishing he had done something more useful since they last met. He had to keep reminding himself that if it wasn't for what he had done Amanda might be dead by now. Then he stopped reminding himself that because of all the other horrors that came into his mind at the same time. Suddenly he remembered the note. Maybe Steve or Amanda would be able to read it. He produced it out of his pocket and showed it to them.  
  
"What does that say?" Amanda asked.  
  
"I don't know, I could only read something about the beach." Mark replied. Steve frowned,  
  
"I don't know what the first bit says, but the second bit looks like..... apugs? No, maybe it's dpugs. No, that makes even less sense."  
  
"I know," Amanda suddenly shouted, "it says drugs!"  
  
"What about the rest?" Mark asked, he felt rather stupid for not having noticed the previous word before, but then he hadn't been wearing his glasses.  
  
"Er.. baek lo beach? No, it's baek to beach, back to beach!"  
  
"Oh, yeah." Mark kicked himself inwardly again, it wasn't that hard to read when you put your mind to it.  
  
"What about the last bit?" he asked.  
  
"Something to do with a house I think." Amanda said.  
  
"Yeah, I think it says house nearby." Steve finished.  
  
"Okay then, something, drugs, back to beach, house nearby." Mark read out.  
  
"I suppose that means that Jesse knew there was a connection to drugs. What do you think that bit about the house means? Did he go back later and find it? Maybe that's where they've taken him." Mark thought out loud.  
  
"Who's they?" Steve queried.  
  
"You know what I mean." Mark replied.  
  
A few minutes later they left Amanda so she could rest a while and had just walked a bit further down the corridor when they bumped into Terri.  
  
"Oh hello." Mark said. Without returning his greeting, Terri started to tell him about something she had heard.  
  
"I've been listening around and thinking about things and have just remembered something. I heard Susan talking about some people she knew really well. They don't work here or anything but I have seen them once or twice. Jesse may have gone to see them or something. I don't know their names but if it's any good I can tell you what they look like." she paused. Mark nodded and she launched into a long and detailed description, after which Mark and Steve left for the police station where they started looking for people who matched the description.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
After half an hour of searching through hundreds of faces of criminals, Mark and Steve were nearly falling asleep when they were interrupted. "Lieutenant Sloan?" a man's voice said. They looked up from the photos.  
  
"Yes?" Steve replied.  
  
"I need to talk to you about something. In private." Steve nodded and followed him out of the room. The man was tall and well built with short black hair and mean eyes. As soon as they were within a safe distance from anyone else Steve spoke,  
  
"Well?" he said.  
  
"It's about Daniel Spartan. You see, I'm not officially allowed to tell you this but I know how important the information might be to you. For 9 months now Daniel Spartan has been an undercover PI working in various drugs rings. Recently he was given the job of checking up on Chris Sittend for a man named Res DeLore." For a moment Steve stood there thinking. Finally he spoke.  
  
"Um, thanks. Can I just ask one question though....," before he could continue the man had turned around and left and his final question was said to thin air, "who are you?"  
  
After standing in the same place for some time, Steve sighed and walked back to the room where he found his father, once again deep in pictures. As soon as he walked in, his father looked up,  
  
"Any luck?" Mark asked.  
  
"Maybe," Steve replied, "Dad can I see that note you showed us earlier?"  
  
"Sure, here it is, why?" his father replied. Steve looked for a minute then nodded,  
  
"Look, you know that bit we couldn't work out? It's not Pea Delape, it's Res DeLore!"  
  
"Res DeLore?" Mark asked.  
  
"Yeah, it's the name of a notorious drugs dealer!"  
  
"Drugs, of course!!" Steve was just about to tell his father to look for Res in the pile of pictures when Mark shouted out,  
  
"Look, that's Res DeLore. He matches Terri's description and so do those seven people!" Finally they had found something. It only took Steve a few more minutes to check all their names and finally the areas in which they were known to operate. All of them were adjacent to a certain point on the map, the part of the beach where Jesse had found Susan's body and where Mark had later found Amanda. Quickly, Steve gathered a group of police officers and they headed straight to the beach. The experienced cops found the house in no time and after making sure it was surrounded, they called all of the drugs dealers out one by one. Finally when they had made sure it was safe, Steve and Mark entered the building. It was completely silent and the renewed hope that Mark and Steve had felt of seeing Jesse alive once more began to fade. After searching several rooms, they found one with the door shut. Steve broke the door down and they ran in top find both Jesse and Chris Sittend lying motionless on the floor. They ran over to them. Mark breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that Jesse was breathing but Chris wasn't so lucky. Slowly, Mark and Steve turned around and called everyone else in, as well as phoning an ambulance then they walked back outside and stood in silence for a while.  
  
Chapter 9  
  
An hour later Mark, Steve and Amanda were talking together in one of the hospital rooms. They had moved Amanda from when they last spoke to her, just in case her attacker came to find her again. Jesse had been rushed to hospital and was currently fast asleep on the road to recovery. Unlike Chris Sittend, he hadn't been injured badly. Meanwhile, Steve had been forced to report all that had happened since Jesse had found Susan, including the fact that Susan's body had been found in Jesse's car boot. Steve had been reprimanded for not reporting it earlier but that wasn't the real problem. They still didn't know who had killed Susan or Chris. For the last half hour Mark, Amanda and Steve had been going through the least of suspects but unfortunately they were running out of ideas. It couldn't be Chris Sittend, not just because he had also been killed but because Daniel Spartan, the undercover PI, could provide him with a solid alibi. The same was true for all the other drugs dealers. They had all been charged with various offences but all either had other alibis or had been nowhere near either Susan or Chris when they had been killed. The only person left to find was Res DeLore, but they didn't think he had anything to do with it. Now, not only did they have no other suspects, but Jesse was beginning to look like a major suspect. After all, he had been near Chris when he was killed and had also found Susan's dead body. He had plenty of opportunity and had been acting strangely recently, as various people could testify and if someone was looking for motive, they could always say that he was insanely jealous. There didn't seem to be anything they could do to prove his innocence, apart from finding the real killer of course. Mark sighed,  
  
"It just doesn't seem to make any sense." he said.  
  
"I know what you mean. There doesn't seem to be anywhere left to look." Steve replied.  
  
"Maybe there is." Mark suddenly said, "Amanda, what was that story you told us about the rumours connecting  
  
Susan and drugs? Wasn't it something about a sister?" Amanda thought for a minute,  
  
"Yeah, her name was Tina I think. Maybe you and Steve should look into it."  
  
"I think maybe we will, you get some rest." Mark replied. Amanda nodded, Steve said goodbye then father and son turned round and left the room.  
  
It wasn't too difficult to find something about Tina Hilliard's death. She had died of a heroin overdose after a long coma. Not much was known apart from that. There were some suspicions as to who had supplied her with the heroin, but nothing had ever been proved. Most of the case notes had been lost, all that remained was a brief description of a tall woman, with black hair and blue eyes. None of this was much help to Mark or Steve though. They didn't really have any remaining suspects so the description wasn't much good either. There had to be thousands of tall women in Los Angeles who had black hair and blue eyes. That wouldn't eliminate many people and there was nothing to say that the woman had anything to do with Susan anyway. If she had had any sense she would have left the minute Tina collapsed. Mark sighed, at least Susan's friends now knew about her death, at least they'd be able to question them openly. Unless the officer in charge of the case didn't want them to, in which case they were stuck. The only thing that was really interesting was the fact that both Susan and Tina had died of the same cause.  
  
Finally, Steve managed to get permission to "help" with the investigation, providing he reported everything he found to the case officer and made sure he told him every time he went somewhere. Steve agreed and went with Mark back to the hospital to question Terri, Vanessa and Rachel. After an half an hour of searching, they finally managed to find Terri and Rachel, but Vanessa was nowhere to be seen. They were quite helpful but were inclined to be spiteful towards Jesse, who everyone was beginning to suspect.  
  
"I know this may not seem relevant but we'd like to ask you a few questions about Tina Hilliard." Mark began.  
  
"Tina?" Terri asked, "What's she got to do with it? Susan's dead and all you're interested in is her sister! Like that's gonna help!" she said scornfully.  
  
"All we want to ask is a few questions, Tina died of a drugs overdose and so did Susan, there is a distinct possibility their deaths might be related." Steve replied patiently.  
  
"As if! You're just trying to protect your friend Jesse. Come on, it's obvious that he killed her, he just went insane with jealousy. Then he happened to nose in other people's business and found out about more about the people who supplied him with drugs. They're the ones who killed Susan's sister but they're not the ones who killed Susan. Stop trying to miss the point. Jesse killed Chris and Susan and that's what matters!" she finished and stalked out the room. Mark sighed and turned to Rachel.  
  
"I know this is difficult but we just want to find out what happened to Susan, I've known Jesse too long to believe he did this. Please will you help us?" he pleaded. However, Rachel wasn't in a mood to be helpful either and although not as loudly or dramatically, she too stood up and left the room.  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Half an hour later Mark, Steve and Amanda (who was finally well enough to leave her room) were gathered around Jesse's bed. He had just woken up and was starting to tell his story when Mark interrupted,  
  
"Look, Jess, I'm really sorry for not believing you before." he said, Amanda nodded and Steve said,  
  
"Me too,"  
  
"That's okay." Jesse said. Then he laughed, "If it had been me I wouldn't have done either." They all smiled and  
  
Jesse continued with his story.  
  
"...And then Chris came in to see me. He told me," Jesse paused, struggling to keep his emotions in control, "he didn't kill Susan. At first he got involved for money but then he met Susan and things kind of changed. After a while he realised it was wrong and started feeding information to the police. I think some of the other guys found out, they came in looking for him while we were talking. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything else, I must have blacked out after that." he stopped. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. After a short pause Mark spoke,  
  
"I guess our only links are Terri, Vanessa and Rachel then. They are the only people left who really know anything useful. I suppose we'll just have to keep trying."  
  
"Don't worry Jess, we won't let you down again." Amanda said. Jesse simply smiled in reply, then the three of them left the room for him to get some more sleep. Outside Jesse's room, they stopped to have a conversation  
  
"So what do we do next?" Amanda asked.  
  
"I don't know. I don't think you should go back to Susan's friends though, we still don't know who attacked you." Mark replied.  
  
"I'm going to go back to the station and see if any of the guys we picked up feel like talking. See you later." Steve replied. Mark and Amanda said goodbye to Steve then thought about what they were going to do next. Just after Steve left, Mark was called to Emergency and the conversation ended.  
  
A while later, Steve was busy relooking over the case file for Tina Hilliard's death, when a fellow police officer came up to him and said,  
  
"Sorry to interrupt you but one of the guys we're interrogating asked to talk to you. I told him you were busy but he insisted he wasn't going to talk to anyone else."  
  
"That's okay, tell him I'll be there in a minute." Steve answered. As promised, he was there a minute later. The instant he walked into the interrogation room, he recognised the person sitting there.  
  
"Well, well. I wondered when I'd be seeing you again. This time, you're not gonna get away before I find out your name." Steve said.  
  
"Sorry to leave you earlier, but I was a little busy at the time. Do you want to hear what I've got to say then or not?" he replied.  
  
"I'm listening."  
  
"Well, I'm Lee Lyndhurst, I won't bore you with unecessary details but suffice it to say that I've been working in my line of business for some time now and I think I have some information you might like to know. I take it you haven't found Res DeLore yet?" Steve shook his head. "Well, you might try Sacramento,"  
  
"So Res DeLore told you everything did he?" Steve asked sceptically.  
  
"Ignore my advice if you want, I don't care. Actually, I heard him talking to that woman he always saw."  
  
"Woman? She didn't happen to be tall with black hair and blue eyes did she?"  
  
"As a matter of fact she did."  
  
"Really, well thanks for your help. We'll talk more later maybe. In the mean time, you better get yourself a lawyer." Steve finished. He then left the room and told another officer to get looking for Res in Sacramento.  
  
Back at the hospital, Mark decided to pay Susan's friends another visit. This time he found Vanessa, who had always been more co-operative. Forunately, today was no exception.  
  
"Hi Dr. Sloan. I feel really bad about not believing Jesse before, it never really occurred to me that Susan might really be dead." she started by saying.  
  
"I know, but there is one way you can help us now. I know a lot of people are saying Jesse had something to do with her death, but I really don't think that's true. Can you tell me anything about Susan's sister Tina and her death?" Mark asked.  
  
"I don't know," she paused for a minute, "I suppose you know she died of a drug overdose?" Mark nodded.  
  
"There isn't really much to tell. Susan was really unhappy after she died, perhaps she blamed herself I don't know, I think she always felt protective towards her younger sister. She took a lot of time off for a while and around about that time she and Jesse split up. She seemed to pull herself together after that and shortly later, began seeing Chris. I don't know though, she still seemed to think about her sister a lot. It really angered her when the police closed the investigation. Maybe she started investigating herself."  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
"Well she died of a drug overdose didn't she?"  
  
"How did you know that?"  
  
"Oh, just something Terri said. Anyway, maybe she started getting close to the answer, maybe they felt they had to kill her."  
  
"Maybe you're right. Did you know Chris was involved with drugs?"  
  
"No. Maybe he killed her."  
  
"I'm afraid not, he had an alibi at the time and besides, he's dead now as well."  
  
"Really? Oh. I don't know, I always got the feeling she still liked Jesse more anyway."  
  
"Well, thanks for your time."  
  
"Sorry I wasn't much good."  
  
"That's okay. I'll talk to you later."  
  
"Okay, bye." and Mark left.  
  
Chapter 11  
  
The following day, Jesse had left the hospital and to keep Mark happy, was resting under his watchful eye at the beach house. Steve and Amanda were also there.  
  
"I think it's time we sit down and get all the facts together. I'm sure the answer's there somewhere, we just have to find it." Mark said, "So, what do we know?"  
  
"Well, we picked Res up this morning in Sacramento, thanks to Lee Lyndhurst's advice. Unfortunately we didn't find that woman with him." Steve announced.  
  
"What, the one with the black hair and blue eyes?" Amanda asked. Steve nodded.  
  
"So we're no closer to knowing who she is, do you think she's connected to all this?" Jesse asked.  
  
"Possibly, I think it's hard to say until we find out who she is, but she's definitely involved in the drugs ring. Have any of the people we arrested when we found Jesse said anything yet?" Mark asked.  
  
"Not yet," Steve answered, "I guess they just don't feel like talking."  
  
"Mark, didn't you say you were going to pay Susan's friends a visit? Did they tell you anything?" Jesse asked.  
  
"Yeah, Vanessa told me about Susan's reaction to her sister's death. From what she said, she basically fell apart, which seemed to be because she felt like her sister's protector, she felt she had failed her sister. Vanessa seemed to think that she felt responsible and so had to investigate on her own, which could have gotten her involved with drugs, leading to her death."  
  
"Mark, didn't you say something earlier about Vanessa knowing about how Susan died?" Amanda asked her friend.  
  
"Yes, I thought it was strange at the time that she knew, I'm sure we never told her." Mark replied.  
  
"Well, maybe she just overheard someone talking about it," suggested Steve, "does it actually matter?"  
  
"Maybe, it could mean she was the killer." pointed out Mark.  
  
"I doubt it," Amanda said, "of all of Susan's friends, she was the nicest. She's not a killer, I'm sure."  
  
"It could be an act though," mentioned Steve, using his cop instincts.  
  
"Maybe someone told her how Susan died, maybe even the killer?" Jesse finally said, bringing him out of his unusually long silence.  
  
"Are you alright Jess?" asked Mark, who was concerned about the mental state of his young friend, who was always bright and talkative.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jesse sighed.  
  
The four friends settled down to eat, different thoughts occupying their minds, Steve, where and who the black haired, blue eyed women often seen with Res was, Amanda, who had attacked her and whether Vanessa really was a killer, Mark, the well-being of his friend Jesse, who was thinking about Susan, why she had left him and who had killed her.  
  
Later that afternoon Mark was at Community General hospital, about to start a very long shift. Throughout the night neither Jesse nor Amanda were there due to their recent injuries. The night started off slowly and Mark had his normal patient rounds to do. Later on in the evening, the place filled up with a major bus crash near the hospital. It reminded Mark of the bus crash before where the parmamedic Tanya had commited a crime of opportunity, however this time it was different as neither of his friends were there to help him through the evening.  
  
After the rush had died down, Mark went to the doctor's lounge and grabbed a cup of coffee. Shortly after going in, Terri arrived and they started talking about the bus crash, however the conversation very quickly turned towards Susan's death.  
  
"So are the police any closer to finding Susan's killer?" Terri asked.  
  
"No, not really, we had a tip off as to the leader of the drugs ring. They found Res DeLore in Sacramento, but not the women that is always suposed to be with him."  
  
"What's she like? Is she the killer?" Terri asked  
  
"Possibly," Mark said, "Can I ask you a personal question?"  
  
"Sure, go ahead if it'll help find Susan's killer." she replied.  
  
"Ok, why is it that everytime we seem to meet, you're wearing sunglasses? It's not like there's much sun in here." Mark laughed. Terri laughed stifly,  
  
"There's no reason really, I'm not one to like light, never have, so I wear glasses, if I'm not on duty. Listen ,I'd better go Dr Sloan, it's been nice talking to you, I hope you find that woman, whoever she is, especially if she's the killer." Terri said then left. Mark stayed where he was for a moment before phoning Steve. After a short conversation with him, he joined the others back at the beach house.  
  
As soon as they were all settled, Mark asked to see the case notes about Tina's death again.  
  
"Dad, why do you want to see this again? You've looked at it a hundred times already, how's it going to help any more?"  
  
"I know it is, this woman that's with Res DeLore, she's the key, I know it." Mark replied.  
  
"How, Mark?" Amanda asked, Jesse just gave him a weird look.  
  
"Everytime we looked at her, we just thought of a tall, black haired and blue eyed woman, we never thought who it could actually be." Mark said. Jesse, Steve and Amanda all looked at him blankly,  
  
"Why should we have thought about it, it's just some woman, it doesn't really matter all that much." replied Steve  
  
"It does," replied Mark, "After the rush had died down in the hospital earlier..."  
  
"You mean the bus crash?" Amanda asked  
  
"Yes, but that's not really important." said Mark, "Anyway I went to the doctor's lounge and had a cup of coffee and Terri came in. Bascially it didn't take long for her to start talking about Susan. She looked almost startled when I mentioned Res Delore being caught and she seemed very interested in the woman."  
  
"Maybe she's a friend and she's trying to protect her," suggested Amanda,  
  
"Maybe," replied Mark, although he was giving nothing away, "have any of you noticed that Terri always wears sunglasses, even inside?"  
  
"Yeah," replied Jesse, "I asked Susan about that, but she never told me," he trailed off, mentioning Susan had refreshed his pain at losing her.  
  
"I asked Terri the same question, she just said she doesn't like bright light and never has, she left then."  
  
"So she gets migraines," Steve said, "where's this leading us Dad?"  
  
"Hang on, if she was using drugs, she might be wearing glasses to cover it up." said Amanda.  
  
"Thats what I thought." confirmed Mark, "Whilst she said this I wondered if perhaps she knew about Susan dying of drugs and then I remembered something Vanesa said, which I had forgotton."  
  
"Terri told her how Susan died?" suggested Jesse  
  
"Yep, and as she was going it also occurred to me that she was tall, with...."  
  
"Black hair and blue eyes, when she's not wearing those glasses." finished Amanda.  
  
"Come on guys, why on earth would she have anything to do with Res and drugs? It doesn't make sense, she'd know the dangers of drugs, she's a nurse." protested Steve.  
  
"Ok, let's just assume for the moments she is." said Mark.  
  
"She knows Susan," said Amanda, "it wouldn't be hard for her to know Tina."  
  
"If she knew Tina, and had been involved with Res and drugs, she would be the one to get Tina hooked on the drugs which killed her." concluded Mark.  
  
"Ok, you're getting there, but why would she still be seen with Res, why is she still taking drugs and if she killed Susan why did she do it, did she have Jesse framed and kidnapped and arrange to have Amanda almost killed? I don't know, it just seems an awful lot of trouble to go to, especially if she has no motive." protested Steve.  
  
"But she did, if she got Tina hooked on drugs which killed her, and Susan found out, and told her, she would have to kill Susan to keep her quiet. If Jesse found out, she'd have to get rid of him and Amanda too if she was getting close to her." Mark said "It all fits."  
  
"I hate to admit it Steve, but he's right." said Amanda, "It all fits, Terri is our killer."  
  
"How do we get her then?" asked Steve, who was still not convinced, but knew his father well enough to know when to trust him.  
  
Chapter 12  
  
The following day when Mark was working again, he happened to meet Terri in the corridor. Once more she was wearing sunglasses and for once this seemed to make sense to Mark. She seemed a bit agitated when he spoke to her.  
  
"Oh, hi Dr Sloan. I'm afraid I'm rather busy at the moment." she said quickly and tried to walk away. However, now he believed she was the killer he wasn't ready to let her go quickly and stopped her as he said,  
  
"I was wondering if I might have a quick word with you."  
  
"I suppose, if it's very quick." she said grumpily.  
  
"Well you see it's about Susan's killer."  
  
"Oh." she replied, with no emotion whatsoever as is she couldn't care less.  
  
"I've just been thinking back over the case and wondering about this woman that's always seen with Res DeLore."  
  
"What about her? I'm sure you're worrying about nothing."  
  
"Well, I'm not so sure, I have this feeling I'm missing something. You know the police reckon they have enough to get the killer but I'm afraid I haven't been able to persuade them to tell me." he continued.  
  
"I'm glad they know who it is." she said with a tone that suggested she was anything but glad to hear it.  
  
"I can't believe it, I just realised that you have black hair don't you, I bet you have blue eyes too! You don't happen to have spent lots of time with Res do you?" he asked with a surprised tone.  
  
"Of course not," she replied, "I've never seen him before in my life. Really Dr Sloan, I must go." With that she rushed away leaving Mark standing alone in the corridor.  
  
Later on in the day he once more bumped into Terri. She wasn't quite so agitated as before and in fact seemed quite calm. He walked over to her.  
  
"Listen I'm really sorry about earlier, it must have seemed as if I was accusing you of murder or something." he began.  
  
"You needn't worry Dr Sloan." she said and appeared as if she was about to leave.  
  
"No, really, I feel really bad about that especialy now I've heard the news."  
  
"What news?" she asked, suddenly suspicious.  
  
"Haven't you heard?" he asked, sounding vaguely surprised, "My son is going to make an arrest this afternoon, apparently he's finally decided they have enough evidence."  
  
"Really, I don't suppose you know who did it?" she asked eagerly.  
  
"I'm afraid not. You'd think he'd tell his own father but no, he seemed to think there was a great need for secrecy." he answered. She mumbled something which was a cross between sympathy and pleasure that they'd caught the killer then got up and left hurriedly.  
  
A couple of minutes later Terri walked into the nurses' lounge again to find it deserted. She sat down and was just about to inject some heroin into her arm when suddenly Amanda walked into the room. She stood up suddenly and dropped the needle on the floor.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asked, "I thought you were supposed to be dead!"  
  
"Do I look like I'm dead?" Amanda asked, "Just because you succeeded with Susan it doesn't mean you'll succeed with me."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I know what you did to Susan."  
  
"I didn't do anything." she replied.  
  
"Yes you did. I bet that needle down there contains heroin just like the heroin Susan died of."  
  
"What makes you think I killed her?" Terri asked.  
  
"Well, there's Vanessa who can testify that you told her how Susan died, even though you had no way of knowing. I'm sure Lee Lyndhurst will be able to identify you as being with Res. By the way, as one of Res' friends has finally agreed to testify against him, including the fact that he killed Chris Sittend. I'm sure he would be able to testify that you had something to do with Susan's death, he's certainly not going to want to take all the blame. In fact, I'm sure it won't be that hard to convince a jury of your guilt."  
  
"Susan was a pain just like you, and you know what happened to her."  
  
"You got her sister hooked on drugs, leading to her death. When Susan found out, you killed her to protect your reputation."  
  
"It's not my fault Tina got herself killed. And as for Susan, she shouldn't have been so nosy, getting involved where she doesn't belong. I had no choice but to get rid of her."  
  
"There's always a choice. Just like you had a choice when you tried to kill me."  
  
"I didn't do that." Terri replied, "If I had I would have done it properly. Still, it's never too late." she finished, at the same time lunging for the syringe and attempting to stab Amanda with it. At the same time, Steve, Mark and Jesse walked in. Steve said,  
  
"I think it just got too late," and managed to grab the syringe out of her hand.  
  
"Haven't you ruined enough lives already?" Jesse asked.  
  
"Are you okay Amanda?" Mark asked.  
  
"Patricia? Amanda?" Terri asked, "You tricked me!" she shouted furiously.  
  
"Just like all those people that died because you convinced them it was good to take drugs." Mark answered.  
  
"But this time, we've beat you at your own game." Jesse finished. Steve then put the syringe in an evidence bag and proceeded to arrest Terri, reading her her rights as he led her out of the room.  
  
Chapter 13  
  
A few days later, Mark, Steve, Jesse and Amanda were once more gathered at the beach house.  
  
"I have some great news," Steve began, "Terri has been officially charged with murder, Res has also been charged with murder, Lee's agreed to testify, as have some of the other members of the drug's ring and Rachel has come forward and confessed to trying to kill Amanda."  
  
"Rachel?" Amanda asked.  
  
"Yes," Mark replied, "apparently she knew nothing about the drugs ring but knew that you seemed to be getting too close to Terri. For reasons we will never know, she felt protective of Terri decided you had to go."  
  
"She seemed so quiet and gentle......" Amanda drifted off.  
  
"I'm sorry for not believing right at the beginning Jesse." Mark said.  
  
"Yeah, well I guess it worked out alright in the end." Jese replied. he then got up and walked out onto the balcony, gazing out at the sea.  
  
"Do you think he's okay, Dad?" Steve asked.  
  
"Yeah, we only need to give him a bit of time." Mark replied, then following him out onto the balcony.  
  
"She still loved me Mark, right up to the end."  
  
"Love lasts forever and so do the memories, Jess, but we have to move on in life." Mark replied, speaking from experience.  
  
"Yeah, and I guess now's the time."  
  
"Well you know if you ever need me, I'll always be there for you." Mark reminded him.  
  
"Thanks." Jesse replied softly, as they walked back into the beach house.  
  
  
  
THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


End file.
